FlashLite 2 vs. FlashLite 1.1 for development

FlashLite 2 has been announced and launched by Adobe.
Now the question is simple :

In terms of FlashLite penetration, which  version of FlashLite should we choose for development purposes ?

In my opinion the question is very simple:  all of you know that FlashLite 2 is more attractive, more powerful and easy to use but we won't see a wide diffusion for FlashLite 2  for at least ten months (or one year).

So if your idea is to sell and distribute contents for mobile devices developed in FlashLite my adviece s to use FlashLite 1.1 for all this year. If you can0t wait and want to use FlashLite 2 you could port 1.1 applications in 2.0 and give users the choice to download both.

My wish is to read and know when Nokia or other manufacturers will release their phones with FlashLite 2 embedded, but for mere mortals/developers this information it's a kind of secret :(
Frankly speaking for me o for any other companies involved in FlashLite development it's very hard and dangerous think to invest or create business with this technology.

Probably this is one of the reasons why FlashLite applications market is so poor !

I'd love to know what you all think about that dilemma. Leave a comment or mail me !

Comments

[Alessandro]

Ciao Marco,

good points. I agree with you on do not leave FL1.1 for FL2. It will take sometime to have FL1.1 and longer for FL2 on phones. Also these two technologies will live togheter for sometime. Regarding the investment, many people are asking similar questions. It's a difficult decision but looking at what FL is doing in Asia seams potentially great !!

Alessandro

[Ralph Hauwert]

Don't you think that companies would get involved in developing lite content, when there's a solid end user base able to see that content ? Personally, I don't think the ball is at the phone manufacturers. The pricing of the Flash Lite "plugin" for end-users is ridiculous. Why would I buy a plugin, when there's hardly any content for it ? I would be a developer.

Last time I looked it costed somewhere around 8 dollars for the plugin for end-users. I really don't want to know what large volume licensing for manufacturers costs then....even with the MMNokia deal, I haven't seen a major deployment of the Flash Lite Player on the mobile platform like that.

Essentially, that's the bottleneck, imho.

[Bryan Rieger]

"...but we won't see a wide diffusion for FlashLite 2 for at least ten months (or one year)."

Where did you get that number? Personally I'd be overjoyed if we had 'wide diffusion' of FlashLite 1.1 in a year - let alone v2!

Ralph, the cost of the v2 plug-in is for the developer version - it's not intended for the general public, and I believe if you download the SDK update from the Macromedia Labs site it includes a voucher for a full discout (free) v2 player.

http://labs.macromedia.com/technologies/flashlite2_update_flashpro8/

There is a definite bottleneck with the OEMs in regards to licensing, but it's also a bit of chicken/egg in terms of developers creating content to provide enough incentive for the OEMs to license it... but without OEM licensing and wide distribution of the player their is little incentive for developers to develop with FlashLite.

Personally, I think Adobe should just treat the Flash player (desktop and devices) as a loss leader and find otherwise to monetize their investment in SWF. Make it a free download, make creating basic content for it as easy as publishing to PDF and ensure using the player with your media is as simple as merely transferring it to your device - no additional install (after the player itself), no config and no IMEI/DRM restrictions.

[Tze-Chien Chu]

Yap, we try to develop a few application using FL1.1 and think Nokia will put the FL1.1 player on every S60 phone . Or MM will give us a compiler to generate the SIS with FL1.1 include. But it looks like it is not the case. So we change our strategy to use another company's VM. www.go-db.com . Maybe it is not as fancy as FL1.1 but at least we can control the VM :) Flash maybe rule on the desktop but it is not the same on the mobile world. Because there is a device manufacture in the middle.

[Dale Rankine]

These discussions have been going in circles for months now. The two versions of FL will co-exist for a long time. How long? No idea. But we won't be seeing commercialized 2.0 content for a while. And as far as the whole argument for the FL player in general ... c'mon. It's here, it's happening, not as fast as developers would like - but hey, what ever does? Even though we're seeing a new release of a piece of software, we're still talking about a very small and infant technology on mobiles. I believe though that baby will grow up and that many of the FL dreams we're having now will eventually be realised.

[Ugur]

"Frankly speaking for me o for any other companies involved in FlashLite development it's very hard and dangerous think to invest or create business with this technology."

I agree that it is not so easy to invest on this technology for the companies yet. However, if everything goes as predicted and some ambiguities can be clearified, it might get easier to go on. I hope there will be some good examples to motivate others.

I agree mostly on what Alessandro says. Additionally, in my opinion, it depends which market you are in and what goal you have, to decide FL1.1 or FL2. It will be of course much more wise to keep on FL1.1 if you are already in an active market (i.e Japan) and start R&D with FL2. However, if there is only a foreseen future potential than an already present market, I may discuss about the point of going on FL1.1. It will take some years that we see FL content on mobiles used widely. It has a disadvantage of not getting directly into business, however it has the advantage of getting ready until the markets get shaped.

"Why would I buy a plugin, when there's hardly any content for it ? I would be a developer."

Exactly! That is the point. It is already aimed for developers. Please refer :
http://www.macromedia.com/cfusion/knowledgebase/index.cfm?id=bb660cc2#who
Thinking in that way, it is normal to see ridicilous to purchase FL player for an end user. Even thinking from developers` side, it is not very encouraging that the player has to be purchased.

Lets hope everything goes better than we wish.

[William]

Will Flashlite 2.o everr be available for Nokia 6600?

[Telewizory Lcd]

I am supposed Flashlite 2.o in my Nokia 6600, he is acting very well, only a bit sie is cutting at the fast animation.